It’s been 60 years…here I am…and here WE are…
From “Silent Spring” to “The Story of More” is a six decade-plus anecdote that equates to my life on our one and only Blue Marble. Relative to the other several billion humans (yes SEVERAL) on our “marble”, those of you that are 60+ years old can likely relate to the story I am about to tell.
I reminisce to my high school years when I first read Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring. It’s a treatise on the state of our planet at that time due to our use of DDT. Her book had an indelible impact on me, not only then, but to this day. Because I grew up in a very large industrial area (southwest Ohio), I saw first hand chemical pollution, in both water and air.
And it wasn’t pretty. Rainbow ribbons of chemical waste meandering down the Great Miami River and into the Ohio, then Mississippi, then Gulf of Mexico. Tons of toxic chemicals spewing into the atmosphere from factories, riding the wind on a journey around the globe. Storm water runoff from streets and other hardened areas being shotgunned to creeks and rivers. And who knows what from the Fernald nuclear production facility just down the road from the house I lived in. Encouragingly, the plant site has been restored.
Silent Spring…
But back to Carson. From her 1962 book:
We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road – the one less traveled by – offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth. Carson
And from a book reviewer:
The most important legacy of Silent Spring, though, was a new public awareness that nature was vulnerable to human intervention. Carson had made a radical proposal: that, at times, technological progress is so fundamentally at odds with natural processes that it must be curtailed. NRDC
The 1960s and 1970s “new public awareness” led to citizen outcry, followed by legislation at many levels of government, resulting in a cleaner environment. Current day water quality in the Great Miami River and air quality in the Greater Cincinnati area are classic examples of improvements that have been made.
The Story of More…
And now on to Jahren.
“The Story of More” by Hope Jahren is a 2021 treatise on the state of our planet today due to production of greenhouse gases. Like Carson, her book will have an indelible impact on me well into the future. Because I’ve had the opportunity to study the interdependence of hydrology, weather and climate over a 40-year career, I can relate to much of what she narrates in her book.
I find it troubling that what Rachel Carson wrote in the 1960s is as applicable today as it was 60 years ago, but this time from a changing climate perspective. We are once again standing where “two roads diverge”. We once again are at a point where “technological progress is fundamentally at odds with natural processes and must be curtailed’.
One piece of narrative from Jahren’s book that caught my attention was:
“All human beings are a lot better at describing what is happening than at predicting what will happen. Somewhere along the way, however, we began to hope that scientists were different–that they could be right all the time. And because they’re not, we kind of stopped listening. By now we’re quite practiced at not listening to things scientists say over and over again.”
― The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here
I hope we adapt to our current challenge the same way we did back then. We can by listening more and becoming better informed about changing climate science.
There’s a Change in the Air…
For many years now I wish we would have come up with a better word than “climate change”. I believe if we would have tagged it “weather change” or “water cycle change”, we would be better positioned today to address the challenges before us.
People can relate to smaller cycle timeframes like weather versus longer cycle timeframes like climate. I hear people mention they haven’t seen a really cold winter in years, or summer’s seem to be warmer (weather changes). Or there seems to be less snowpack in the winter, and streamflow in late summer (water cycle changes).
I find these comments curious because another piece of narrative from Carson that is incredibly applicable to our current situation is:
“Of all our natural resources water has become the most precious.” Carson
Weather and water cycle changes can and will directly, indirectly, or cumulatively affect water. Thus, subtle to drastic changes can and will make water even more precious. Remember there are 8 billion of us sharing the finite fresh water on our blue marble; all of which is circulated through the water cycle. Carson’s comment is 60 years old and yet today, here I am and here WE are. Think about that for a bit.
Until next time…enjoy YOUR public lands…